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OO-MA-HA TA-WA-THA 

(OMAHA CITY) 



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Oo-Mah-Ha Ta-Wa-Tha 



(OMAHA CITY 



FANNIE REED GIFFEN 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

SUSETTE LA FLESCHE TIBBLES 
(bright eyes) 



1854-1898 



PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORS 
, c , LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 



71 



Copyright by 
FANNIE REED GIFFEN 

AND 

SUSETTE I.A FLESCHE TIBBLES 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



1'KESS OF , 
r . B. FBSTNER 

OMA.HA 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Tre\ty with the Omahas in 1S54 11 

Biographies of Chiefs who signed the treaty in 
1854: 

Shon-ga-ska. or Logan Fontenelle 24 

E-sta-mah-za, or Joseph La Flesche 27 

Gra-tah-nah-je, or Standing Hawk 41 

Gah-he-ga-gin-gah, or Little Chief 42 

Tah-wah-gah-ha, or Village Maker 44 

Wah-no-ke-ga, or Noise 45 

So-da-nah-ze. or Yellow Smoke 46 

To the Driving Cloud 18 

Henry W. Longfellow's Apostrophe to the Omaha Chief. 

Chief Big Elk §1 

Waj apa's Letter , 53 

During the winter of 1879-80, the chiefs and head men 
of that part of the Omaha tribe who wished to become 
citizens of the United States, and own land in severalty, 
held a council in a mud lodge, to talk over the matter. 
1 he result was. a letter was sent by VVa-ja-pa I an Omaha 
Indian) to citizens in the eastern states, who were try- 
ing to create a public interest in favor of Indian citizen- 
ship and ownership of land in severalty The translation 
of this letter is literal, and only those familiar with the 
Indian idiom can feel the full force of it. 

Twelfth Article of Treaty 57 

Translated into the Omaha Indian language by Inshta 
Theumba, or Bright Eyes. 

A Dream Woman 58 

This story is told by Waoo-winchtcha, wife of Iron Eye. 
and translated by her daughter. Dr. Susan Picotte, who 
is a graduate of the Woman's Medical College, of Phila- 
delphia, and is a physician in the Omaha tribe. The 
interpretation has been singularly fulfilled. Waoo- 
winchtcha is still living, and is loved and respected by 
all who know her. 

Omaha Children's Play Song 63 



Page 

Louis — Iron Eye's Son .* 64 

The short account of his death, as remembered by his 
oldest sister. 

The Captive's Song 68 

A story of Chief Big Elk, as told by Waoo-winchtcha to 
her children. 

Indian Picture Writing 77 

Indian Folk Lore Story — The Rabbit and the 

Turtle 79 

At the request of a white friend, E-sta-mah-za, nine- 
teen years ago, consented to relate one of the Omaha 
Indian folk lore stories. At that time he was the prin- 
cipal chief of the Omaha tribe. The story was told near 
the old Mission building, which was located on the bank 
of the Missouri river, some ten miles north of Decatur, 
Nebraska. 

Omaha in 1898 88 

Nebraska 91 

The Cuban Mother 92 

Our Boys in Cuba 94 



The translations of the stories are as literal as possible. 
To get an Indian to relate a tribal legend to a white 
man is not a small undertaking. Their legends are 
sacred matters with them 

1 hrough the kindness of Mr. Julius Meyer, of Omaha, 
who has the largest and finest Indian relic collection in 
the west, and also of Henry Fontenelle and Louis Neil — 
two Omaha Indians— we obtained several photographs 
of chiefs which otherwise could not have been procured. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Omaha in 1854 , , 

Shon-ga-ska, or Logan Fontenelle 25 

E-STA-MAH-ZA, OR JOSEPH La FLESCHE 28 

Gra-tah-nah-je, or Standing Hawk 4j 

Gah-he-ga-gin-gah, or Little Chief 49 

Wah-no-ke-ga, or Noise 4c 

So-da-nah ze, or Yellow Smoke 46-47 

Driving Cloud (Colored Plate) between 4S-49 

Big Thunder Canoe . . c n 

OU 

Big Elk cn 

* ol 

Wa-ja-pa ... - r 

DO 

Inshta Theamba, or Bright Eyes 57 

A Dream Woman (Colored Plate). .. between 58-59 

HlN - NA " GI 59 

Waoo-winchtcha, or Mary La Flesche (>! 

Louis .... „. 
60 

Shing ga-zing-ga (Baby) fi6 

Mud Lodge fifi 

Indian Picture Writing 77 

E-sta-mah-za, relating Folk Lore Story 78 

Omaha in 1898 88 




In remembrance of the Omahas, the tribe 
of Indians after which Omaha city is named, 
and who, less than fifty years ago, held an 
uncontested title to the land where Omaha 
city and the great Trans-Mississippi Exposi- 
tion is located, this book is dedicated, that 
the memory of the tribe, its chieftains, its 
warriors and its maidens might be preserved. 
The book is edited by one who was herself 
born on Nebraska soil, and at whose father's 
house the chiefs of several Nebraska tribes 
were always received with a welcome, and 
given hospitable entertainment. 

Most of the illustrations are the produc- 
tions and reproductions of the brush and pencil 
of the daughter of E-sta-mah-za (Iron Eye), 
noted chief of the Omahas, pronounced by 
the tribe, Oo-mah-ha. The book also con- 



tains a copy of the treaty with the Omahas 
by which instrument the title of the land 
upon which Omaha city and the Trans-Mis- 
sissippi Exposition is located passed to the 
United States government in 1854. Repro- 
ductions of the photographs of all, except 
one, of the chiefs ( Tah-wah-gah-ha, or Village 
Maker, feared the camera, therefore his picture 
was never taken ) who signed the treaty, with 
a short character sketch of each. The illus- 
trations by Inshta Theumba (Bright Eyes) 
are believed to be the first artistic work by 
an American Indian ever published; and the 
book will be entertaining on that account 
alone. It is hoped that a souvenir of this 
kind will not only recall the wonderful prog- 
ress made by the white people who have 
found homes in the valley of the Mississippi, 
but create and forever perpetuate a kindly 
feeling for the remnant of the Indian people 
still remaining, and who are slowly struggling 
upward toward a higher civilization. 




'wh 



TREATY WITH THE INDIANS 
MARCH 16TH, 1854 




OMAHA INDIAN GIRL 

(hin-na-gi) 




TREATY WITH THE INDIANS. 

March, 16, 1854. 

Franklin Pierce, President of the United States 
of America, to all and singular to whom 
these presents shall come, Greeting: 

Whereas a Treaty was made and concluded 
at the City of Washington, on the sixteenth 
day of March, one thousand eight hundred 
and fifty-four, by George W. Manypenny, 
Commissioner on the part of the United 
States, and the Omaha tribe of Indians, which 
treaty is in the words following, to wit: 

Articles of agreement and convention made 
and concluded at the City of Washington this 



sixteenth day of March, one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-four, by George W. Many- 
penny, as Commissioner on the part of the 
United States, and the following named chiefs 
of the Omaha tribe of Indians, viz: Shon-ga- 
ska, or Logan Fontenelle; E-sta-mah-za, or 
Joseph Le Flesche; Gra-tah-nah-je, or Stand- 
ing Hawk; Gah-he-ga-gin-gah, or Little Chief; 
Tah-wah-gah-ha, or Village Maker; Wah-no- 
ke-ga, or Noise; So-da-nah-ze, or Yellow 
Smoke: they being thereto duly authorized 
by said tribe. 

Article i. The Omaha Indians cede to 
the United States all their lands west of the 
Missouri river, and south of a line drawn due 
west from a point in the center of the main 
channel of said Missouri river due east of 
where the Ayoway river disembogues out of 
the bluffs, to the western boundary of the 
Omaha country, and forever relinquish all 
right and title to the country south of said 
line. Provided, however, that if the country 
north of the said due west line, which is re- 
served by the Omahas for their future home, 
should not on exploration prove to be a satis- 
factory and suitable location for said Indians, 
the President may, with the consent of said 
Indians, set apart and assign to them, within 
or outside of the ceded country, a residence 
suited for and acceptable to them. And for 
the purpose of determining at once and 



definitely, it is agreed that a delegation of 
said Indians, in company with their agent, 
shall, immediately after the ratification of 
this instrument, proceed to examine the 
country hereby reserved, and if it please the 
delegation, and the Indians in counsel express 
themselves satisfied, then it shall be deemed 
and taken for their future home; but if other- 
wise, on the fact being reported to the 
President, he is authorized to cause a new 
location, of suitable extent, to be made for 
the future home of said Indians, and which 
shall not be more in extent than three hun- 
dred thousand acres, and then in that case, 
all the country belonging to the said Indians 
north of a said due west line, shall be and is 
hereby ceded to the United States by the 
said Indians, they to receive the same rate per 
acre for it, less the number of acres assigned 
in lieu of it for a home, as now paid for the 
land south of said line. 

Article 2. The Omahas agree, that so 
soon after the United States shall make the 
necessary provision for fulfilling the stipula- 
tions of this instrument, as they can conven- 
iently arrange their affairs, and not to exceed 
one year from its ratification, they will vacate 
the ceded country, and remove to the lands 
reserved herein by them, or to the other lands 
provided for in lieu thereof, in the preceding 
article, as the case may be. 

11 

L.of c 



Article 3. The Omahas relinquish to the 
United States all claims, for money or other 
thing, under former treaties, and likewise 
all claim which they may have heretofore, 
at any time, set up, to any land on the 
east side of the Missouri river: Provided, The 
Omahas shall still be entitled to and receive 
from the Government, the unpaid balance of 
the twenty-five thousand dollars appropri- 
ated for their use, by the act of thirtieth of 
August, 1851. 

Article 4. In consideration of and pay- 
ment for the country herein ceded, and the 
relinquishments herein made, the United 
States agree to pay to the Omaha Indians 
the several sums of money following, to wit: 

1 st. Forty thousand dollars per annum, 
for the term of three years, commencing on 
the first day of January, eighteen hundred 
and fifty-five. 

2nd. Thirty thousand dollars per annum, 
for the term of ten years, next succeeding 
the three years. 

3rd. Twenty thousand dollars per annum, 
for the term of fifteen years, next succeeding 
the ten years. 

4th. Ten thousand dollars per annum, for 
the term of twelve years, next succeeding the 
fifteen years. 

All which several sums of money shall be 
paid to the Omahas, or expended for their 

14 



use and benefit, under the direction of the 
President of the United States, who may 
from time to time determine, at his discretion, 
what proportion of the annual payments, in 
this article provided for, if any, shall be paid 
to them in money, and what proportion 
shall be applied to and expended for their 
moral improvement and education; for such 
beneficial objects as in his judgment will be 
calculated to advance them in civilization; 
for buildings, opening farms, fencing, break- 
ing land, providing stock, agricultural imple- 
ments, seeds, etc. ; for clothing, provisions, 
and merchandise; for iron, steel, arms and 
ammunition; for mechanics, and tools; and 
for medical purposes. 

Articte 5. In order to enable the said 
Indians to settle their affairs and to remove 
and subsist themselves for one year at their 
new home, and which they agree to do without 
further expense to the United States, and 
also to pay the expenses of the delegation 
who may be appointed to make the explora- 
tion provided for in article first, and to fence 
and break up two hundred acres of land at 
their new home, they shall receive from the 
United States, the further sum of for*y-one 
thousand dollars, to be paid out and expended 
under the directions of the President, and in 
such manner as he shall approve. 

Article 6. The President may, from time 



to time, at his discretion, cause the whole or 
such portion of the land hereby reserved, as 
he may think proper, or of such other land 
as may be selected in lieu thereof, as provided 
for in article first, to be surveyed into lots, 
and to assign to such Indian or Indians of 
said tribe as are willing to avail of the 
privilege, and who will locate on the same as 
a permanent home, if a single person over 
twenty-one years of age, one eighth of a sec- 
tion ; to each family of two, one quarter section ;. 
to each family of three and not exceeding 
five, one-half section; to each family of six 
and not exceeding ten, one section; and to 
each family over ten in number, one-quarter 
section for every additional five members. 
And he may prescribe such rules and regula- 
tions as will insure to the family, in case of 
death of the head thereof, the possession and 
enjoyment of such permanent home and the 
improvements thereon. And the President 
may, at any time, in his discretion, after such 
person or family has made a location on the 
land assigned for a permanent home, issue a 
patent to such person or family for such 
assigned land, conditioned that the tract shall 
not be aliened or leased for a longer term 
than two years; and shall be exempt from levy, 
sale, or forfeiture, which conditions shall con- 
tinue in force, until a State constitution, em- 
bracing such lands within its boundaries,. 

1(5 



shall have been formed, and the legislature 
of the state shall remove the restrictions. 
And if any such person or family shall at any 
time neglect or refuse to occupy and till a 
portion of the lands assigned, and on which 
they have located, or shall rove from place to 
place, the President may, if the patent shall 
have been issued, cancel the assignment, and 
may also withhold from such person or family, 
their proportion of the annuities or other 
moneys due them, until they shall have re- 
turned to such permanent home, and resumed 
the pursuits of industry; and in default of 
their return the tract may be declared aban- 
doned, and thereafter assigned to some other 
person or family of such tribe, or disposed of 
as provided for the disposition of the excess 
of said land. And the residue of the land 
hereby reserved, or of that which may be se- 
lected in lieu thereof, after all of the Indian 
persons or families shall have had assigned 
to them permanent homes, may be sold for 
their benefit, under such laws, rules or regu- 
lations, as may hereafter be prescribed by 
the Congress or President of the United 
States. No State legislature shall remove 
the restrictions herein provided for, without 
the consent of Congress. 

Article 7. Should the Omahas determine 
to make their permanent home north of the 
due west line named in the first article, the 

17 



United States agree to protect them from the 
Sioux and all other hostile tribes, as long as 
the President may deem such protection 
necessary; and if other lands be assigned 
them, the same protection is guaranteed. 

Article 8. The United States agree to 
erect for the Omahas at their new home, a 
grist and saw mill, and keep the same in 
repair, and provide a miller for ten years; 
also to erect a good blacksmith shop, supply 
the same with tools, and keep it in repair for 
ten years; and provide a good blacksmith for 
a like period; and to employ an experienced 
farmer for the term of ten years, to instruct 
the Indians in agriculture. 

Article 9. The annuities of the Indians 
shall not be taken to pay the debts of indi- 
viduals. 

Article 10. The Omahas acknowledge 
their dependence on the government of the 
United States, and promise to be friendly 
with all the citizens thereof, and pledge them- 
selves to commit no depredations on the 
property of such citizens. And should any 
one or more of them violate this pledge, and 
the fact be satisfactorily proven before the 
agent, the property taken shall be returned, 
or in default thereof, or if injured or de- 
stroyed, compensation may be made by the 
government out of their annuities. Nor will 
they make war on any other tribe, except in 

18 



self-defense, but will submit all matters of 
difference between them and other Indians to 
_ ; the government of the United States, or its 
agent, for decision, and abide thereby. And 
if any of the said Omahas commit any depre- 
dations on any other Indians, the same rule 

• shall prevail as that prescribed in this article 
in case of depredations against citizens. 

Article ii. The Omahas acknowledge 

. themselves indebted to Lewis Saunsoci, a 

half-breed, for services, the sum of one 

thousand dollars, which debt they have not 

been able to pay, and the United States agree 

f to pay the same. 

Article 12. The Omahas are desirous to 
exclude from their country the use of ardent 
spirits, and to prevent their people from 

• drinking the same, and therefore it is pro- 
vided that any Omaha who is guilty of bring- 
ing liquor into their country, or who drinks 

v liquor, may have his or her proportion of the 
annuities withheld from him or her for such 
time as the President may determine. 

Article 13. The board of foreign missions 

f of the Presbyterian church have on the lands 
of the Omahas a manual labor boarding school, 
for the education of the Omaha, Otoe, and 
other Indian youth, which is now in successful 

j operation, and as it will be some time before 
the necessary buildings can be erected on the 
reservation, and [it is] desirable that the 

19 



school should not be suspended, it is agreed 
that the said board shall have four adjoining 
quarter sections of land, so as to include as 
near as may be all the improvements hereto- 
fore made by them, and the President is au- 
thorized to issue to the proper authority of 
said board, a patent in fee simple for such 
quarter sections. 

Article 14. The Omahas agree that all 
the necessary roads, highways and railroads, 
which may be constructed as the country im- 
proves, and the lines of which may run 
through such tract as may be reserved for 
their permanent home, shall have a right of 
way through the reservation, a just compen- 
sation being paid therefor in money. 

Article 15. This treaty shall be obliga- 
tory on the contracting parties as soon as the 
same shall be ratified by the President and 
Senate of the United States. 

In testimony whereof, the said George W. 
Manypenny, commissioner as aforesaid, and 
the undersigned chiefs, of the Omaha tribe of 
Indians, have hereunto set their hands and 
seals, at the place and on the day and year 
hereinbefore written. 

George W. Manypenny, 
[l. s.] Commissioner. 



s. 



Shon-ga-ska, or Logan Fontenelle, 

his x mark. [l. 

E-sta-mah-za, or Joseph LeFlesche, 

his x mark. 
Gra-tah-nah-je, or Standing Hawk, 

his x mark. [l. s. 

Gah-he-ga-gin-gah, or Little Chief, 

his x mark. [l.s. 

Tah-wah-gah-ha, or Milage Maker, 

his x mark. [l.s. 

Wah-no-ke-ga, or Noise, 

his x mark. [l.s. 

So-da-nah-ze, or Yellow Smoke, 

his x mark. [l.s. 

Executed in the presence of us: 

James M. Gatewood, Indian Agent. 

James Goszler. 

Charles Calvert. 

James D. Kerr. 

Henry Beard. 

Alfred Chapman. 

Louis Saunsoci, Interpreter. 

And whereas the said Treaty having been 
submitted to the Senate of the United States 
for its constitutional action thereon, the Sen- 
ate did, on the seventeenth day of April, one 
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, amend 
the same by a resolution in the words and 
figures following, to-wit: 



In Executive Session, ) 

Senate of the United States, > 
April 17th, 1854. ) 
Resolved, ( two-thirds of the senators presen t 
concurring), That the Senate advise and 
consent to the ratification of the articles of 
agreement and convention made and con- 
cluded at the City of Washington this [the] 
sixteenth day of March, one thousand eight 
hundred and fifty-four, by George W. Many- 
penny as Commissioner on the part of the 
United States, and the following named 
chiefs of the Omaha tribe of Indians, viz: 
Shon-ga-ska, or Logan Fontenelle; E-sta- 
mah-za, or Joseph La Flesche; Gra-tah-nah- 
je, or Standing Hawk; Gah-he-ga-gin-gah, 
or Little Chief; Tah-wah-gah-ha, or Village 
Maker; Wah-no-ke-ga, or Noise; So-da-nah- 
ze, or Yellow Smoke, they being thereto duly 
authorized by said tribe; with the following 
amendment, — Article 3, line 3, strike out 
"1851" and insert 1852. 
Attest: 

Ashurv Dickens, Secreta^. 

Now, therefore, be it known, that I. 
Franklin Pierce, President of the United 
States of America, do, in pursuance of the 
advice and consent of the Senate, as ex- 
pressed in their resolution of the seventeenth 
day of April, one thousand eight hundred 



and fifty-four, accept, ratify, and confirm the 

said treaty as amended. 

In testimony whereof, I have caused the 

seal of the United States to be hereunto 

affixed, having signed the same with my hand. 

Done at the City of Washington, 

this twenty-first day of June, in the year 

[l. s. ] of our Lord one thousand eight hundred 
and fifty-four, and of the Independence 
of the United States the seventy-eighth- 

Franklin Pierce. 
By the President: 

W. L. Marcy, Secretary of State. 




2:5 




HON-GA-SKA, OR 

LOGAN FONTENELLE. 

Of the chiefs who signed the treaty 
^n conveying the title of the land to the 

tUi&L I United States, where Omaha and the 

Trans-Mississippi Exposition now 
stand, the first was Logan Fontenelle. He 
was the only one among them who could 
read, write or speak English. He was elected 
chief for the express purpose of helping the 
Indians to make the treaty with the United 
States. 

Mr. Fontenelle was tall, of courtly bearing, 
pleasing manners, and universally respected 
by the white people as well as by the Indians. 
He was a great personal friend of Iron Eye 
(Joseph La Flesche), and was a well edu- 
cated man, being one-half French. 

He accompanied the chiefs to Washington, 
and although he had formerly acted as their 
interpreter, on this occasion another inter- 
preter was taken, and Shon-ga-ska made his 
speeches to the President and Commissioner 
in the Omaha language; and they were inter- 
preted into English by Louis Saunsoci, who 
was official interpreter upon this visit. 

After his return from Washington, and the 
Omahas were ordered to move to their new 
reservation, where they still reside, about 

24 



seventy miles north of Omaha on' the Mis- 
souri river. Fontenelle is said to have made 
a vigorous protest against the removal, until 
the government fulfilled its part of the agree- 
ment. 

The treaty provided that the government 
of the United States would protect the 
Omahas against the Sioux, who were at that 
time roaming all over the northern part of 
Nebraska, and were the old enemies of the 
Omahas. 

When the Indians were ordered to go to 
the reservation, no provisions were made for 
their protection, and Fontenelle is said to have 
made a speech at Bellevue, before they started. 
Some fragments of this speech have been pre- 
served by the State Historical Society. 

He declared it was murder, and nothing 
but murder, to place the unarmed and defense- 
less Omahas right in the path of their heredi- 
tary enemies. He finally placed his hand on 
his revolver and said, "This 
is good for six Sioux. We 
will go and meet our fate." 

It was but a short time after, 
when on a hunt (for the Oma- 
has were forced to hunt or 
starve), that an overwhelm- 
ing number of the Sioux made 
onslaught on the Omaha hunt- 
ing party. Logan Fontenelle 

25 




fought as long as he could raise his hand. He 
did not quite make his assertion good, but 
three dead Sioux were found near his body. 

Some days after the fight, his body was re- 
covered and brought back to the camp of the 
Omahas. The whole tribe went into mourn- 
ing. Strange stories are told in the tents of 
the Omahas to-day about the ceremonies that 
were performed by the club or secret society, 
among the Indians, to which he belonged. 

Col. Sarpy sent to St. Joseph, Missouri, and 
hired a Protestant Episcopal minister to come 
to Bellevue and read the Episcopal services 
over the remains. The white people in all 
that region of the country, being mostly 
French traders, assembled the day that he 
was buried. 

Logan Fontenelle's name, among all classes 
of the Omahas, is to this day held in great 
reverence. 





STA-MAH-ZA, OR JOSEPH 
LA FLESCHE, 

Iron Eye, the second signer of the 
treaty, is known to the whites as 
Joseph La Flesche. He was a man 
of very great natural ability. He had 
no education, could not read, write, 
or speak English, but he always impressed 
one as a man of thought and good judgment. 
He was an unlearned, natural philosopher. 
How he obtained his vast store of knowledge, 
when he could not read, and had no associa- 
tion with men of learning, was always a mys- 
tery. When the great Indian habeas corpus 
case was first stated to him, he instantly re- 
plied with a clear statement of the funda- 
mental and underlying principles upon which 
the case should be fought in the courts. 
When his views were submitted to the attor- 
neys, Messrs. Poppleton and Webster, the}' 
immediately admitted their force and sound- 
ness, and acted upon them. 

Early in life the abilities of Iron Eye were 
recognized by the wise and statesman-like old 
head chief, Big Elk, who foresaw the changes 
that were coming, and desired a wise and pru- 
dent ruler to follow him. Big Elk had a son 
who, according to Indian custom, would in- 
herit the head chieftainship, but he was a 
child, and had a weak physical constitution. 



The old chief knew that the great transfor- 
mation which was bound to overthrow the 
customs of Indian life, would come before 
his boy would arrive at mature years, and he 
resolved that Iron Eye should take the head 
chieftainship and pilot the tribe through that 
dangerous period. 

Big Elk took every precaution to impress 
upon the tribe that Iron Eye should inherit 
from him the full authority which he himself 
enjoyed, and was very careful to observe all 
the forms and ceremonies which the customs 
of the tribe required in such cases. He there- 
fore sent by the officer, whose duty it was to 
carry it, the tobacco bag to Iron Eye, who 
received it with all the formalities prescribed 
on such occasions. 

Then Big Elk "pipe danced" Iron Eye's 
wife (this occurred two years after her mar- 
riage). By this ceremony, Big Elk adopted 
Iron Eye as his son, and announced by the 
/^^""N public crier that he had done 

/ \ so. Then in public, in the 

». ** * presence of Iron Eye, Big Elk 

|/Sr further declared, so that there 

%1 could be no possibility of mis- 

•^T^^^ understanding, that Iron Eye 
'^*^> R was his "oldest" son and that 
he wished Iron Eye to inherit 
the chieftainship from him. 
After that he caused Iron 

28 



Eye to give four ceremonial feasts, which the 
Indian customs required when one was de- 
clared the inheritor of the chieftainship. 

At these feasts all the chiefs and all the 
members of the tribe assented, for they all 
loved Iron Eye for his generosity and kind- 
ness to the tribe, respected his ability and 
feared his power. Four times these cere- 
monies were repeated,* and ever after during 
Big Elk's life, on all proper occasions, Iron 
Eye was recognized as their chief. 

Several years later the Indians were having 
a feast. One afternoon Big Elk went out 
hunting and killed a deer with a tomahawk. 
A few hours later he was stricken with a 
fever then epidemic among the Indians. Big 
Elk called for Iron Eye, and said: " My son, 
give me some medicine." An Indian runner 
was sent to Bellevue for medicine, but it was a 
three days' journey, and when the carrier re- 
turned it was too late. Just before the old 
chief died he sent for Iron Eye, and said: 
"My son, I give you all my papers from 
Washington, and I make you head chief. 
You will occupy my place. When your brother 
is of age (meaning his own young son) you 
can do for him as is best. I leave him in 
your charge." 

When dying, seeing Louis, the young son 
of Iron Eye, he raised his hand, and said: "My 

*Everything has to be repeated four times in an Indian tribe 
before it has validity. 

29 



grandchild — " attempted to speak further, but 
could not. 

Iron Eye then assumed the chieftainship of 
the tribe, all the chiefs consenting. The 
action of the tribe was approved by the com- 
missioner of Indian affairs, Manypenny, and 
other authorities at Washington. Iron Eye's 
papers were sent to him, bearing the great seal 
from Washington. They are now in posses- 
sion of his son, Frank La Flesche, who is 
employed in the Indian Department at Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

It was impossible that a man of Iron Eye's 
character, determined as he was that the 
tribe should be brought as soon as possible to 
abandon the Indian mode of life, go to farm- 
ing and send their children to school, should 
not meet with fierce opposition among his 
own people. It did, and the result was, that 
the tribe was divided into two parties. The one 
called the ''Chief's party", being opposed to 
the education of their children and to farm- 
ing, and the other called the " Young Men's 
party," who favored education, desired to 
adopt the customs of the whites, and go to 
farming. 

Of the latter party Iron Eye was the head, 
and a political warfare of the greatest bitter- 
ness was waged. Iron Eye found that he had 
not only half of the tribe arrayed against him, 
but often the agent, the agent's employes and 



the authorities at Washington. It was not 
to the interest of this class of white men that 
the Indians should become intelligent, self- 
supporting farmers. 

Iron Eye employed every means he could 
command in the contest. He did not believe 
in Indian superstitions; but he used them to 
aid him in this dispute, for he thoroughly be- 
lieved that upon the success of the principles 
he advocated depended the future existence 
of his people. He often said to them: "It 
is either civilization or extermination." 

Father Hamilton related a story of the way 
Iron Eye would appeal to their superstitions. 
On returning from a trip to Washington, Iron 
Eye brought home with him a small electric 
battery and a patent cork leg (for some years 
before he had lost a leg, and always walked 
around on an old-fashioned substitute). 

He made a feast, and invited all the chiefs 
and head men of the tribe. When they were 
assembled, and had eaten, he made them a 
speech something after this fashion: 

"You all believe in the power of your 
medicine men. However much power they 
may have, it is nothing compared with that 
of the whites. Your medicine is but as a 
breath that vanishes, when compared with 
theirs. You cannot resist them; it is useless 
to try. Now I will show you something of 
the power of the white man's medicine." 

31 



He then had the chiefs join hands and take 
hold of the handles of the battery. Then 
suddenly he turned it on full force, and stood 
gravely to one side and watched their contor- 
tions. He finally turned the battery off, and 
while the chiefs were trying to recover their 
dignity, he stepped aside, and came walking 
in, to all appearance having in a minute or 
two grown a new leg. 

The astonishment of the chiefs and medi- 
cine men were beyond description. Iron Eye 
sat down on a box, crossed his legs, moved 
his wooden foot up and down, then got up 
and walked around. By this time the chiefs 
and medicine men were so frightened that 
they were about to flee from his presence. 

He commanded them all to be seated. 
Everyone immediately obeyed. There was a 
power in that white man's medicine of which 
they were all afraid. Then he made a long 
speech to them, showed them his wooden leg, 
explained the working of the electric battery, 
and told them there was no such thing as 
" big medicine," either among the Indians or 
the whites, and impressed upon them the fact 
that the whites were not great and powerful 
because of any magic power, but because they 
all worked and sent their children to school. 

While one or two were converted, the re- 
sult of the performance was that the opposi- 



tion chiefs and medicine men hated him worse 
than ever. 

During these years there was a furor in all 
the Indian tribes. The Otoe Indians sent a 
delegation to the Omaha tribe to aid those 
Indians who were opposed to civilization. 
Iron Eye had a brother who was a chief in 
the Ponca tribe, and he was anxious that 
they, too, should advance. In May, 1876, 
he dictated the following letter, and sent it to 
his brother, White Swan. It will give an 
idea of the way he tried to instruct the In- 
dians. The letter read as follows: 

"Omaha Agency, May, 1876: 
"Dear Brother: 

"I have some news to send you, but it is 
not good news. The Otoes came up here to 
visit us. Instantly, upon their arrival, the 
whole tribe got together and had a council. I 
did not hear all that was done, but I know that 
it is the same thing that I have been hearing for 
the last ten years. The Otoes told them that 
all the Indians where they came from, sent 
word to the Omahas that trying to be like the 
white people was very bad; that all who had 
tried to do it were badly off, but that those 
who had staid in the Indian customs were do- 
ing well. They had been sent to say that all 
who attempted to do like the white people, 
had given it up, and should go back to their 
old ways. It was too hard. 

33 



"The chief's party believed what they said, 
and they are more determined than ever to 
resist any step toward advancement. I think, 
however, that all of the Young men's party 
turned their backs on them. 

"There are some good things by which we 
live. 

"First — The God above made this world 
and gave it to us to live in. 

"Second — The white men have been sent 
to teach us how to live. 

"Third — God has made the earth to yield 
her fruit to us. 

"Fourth — God has given us hands with 
which we can work. 

"Look back on the lives of your fathers 
and grandfathers; then look at yourselves, 
and see how far you have gone ahead, and 
seeing this, do not stop and turn back to 
them, but go forward. Look ahead and you 
will see nothing but the white man. The 
future is full of the white man, and we shall 
be as nothing before them. 

"Do not think that if anyone cheats you 
or does you wrong, that you will do the same 
to him. Look out for yourselves. Take care 
of yourselves." 

" From your brother, 

"Joseph La Flesche." 

Iron Eye always gave the missionaries 
among the Omahas his sympathy and earnest 

34 



support. He was among the first to unite 
with the church after Father Hamilton came 
to the tribe, and was the life-long friend of 
this patient man of God. 

The next Sunday after Iron Eye united 
with the church, the room in which public 
services were held would not hold one-fifth 
of the Indians that attended. For several 
Sundays the same Indians were always there. 
This constant church-going on the part of 
the Indians, many of whom had never before 
been seen at the church services, was a 
mystery to Father Hamilton. It was winter, 
and some of the days on which they came 
were exceedingly cold and stormy. But that 
made no difference; when Sunday came, the 
Indians assembled — men, women and chil- 
dren, dogs and ponies, by the hundreds. 

Finally Father Hamilton asked Iron Eye 
what made the Indians all at once take a 
notion to go to church in such large numbers. 

Said Iron Eye, " It is good for the Indians 
to go to church. I want them to learn to be 
Christians, so I ordered them to go." 

Father Hamilton undertook to explain to 
him that the Christian religion could not be 
propagated in that way. But Iron Eye would 
not agree, and said: 

"This new way that you teach us is good. 
You have read to me the words of the Son of 
God, from the book God gave to you, and 



the words were good. The words of that 
book are not like what the old men have 
taught us. What they have taught us is fool- 
ishness. When you read God's book to the 
Indians, and explain to them what it means, 
it teaches them to walk in the right way. 
Therefore, I ordered them to go every Sun- 
day and hear you read from God's book, and 
listen to you while you explain it." 

A long,argument followed, and the subject 
was discussed several hours a day for three 
days. At last Iron Eye said that Father 
Hamilton must take God's book, read it all 
through, and then tell him what the book 
said about it. 

Father Hamilton hunted up a great many 
scriptural texts which he thought bore upon 
the question, but none of them convinced 
Iron Eye, until he read to him the following: 

''My kingdom is not of this world; if my 
kingdom were of this world, then would my 
servants fight." 

Iron Eye sat still in deep thought for a 
long time. At last he arose, and said he 
must think over the subject more, and went 
away. 

When Iron Eye returned two or three days 
afterwards, he seemed to be a changed man. 
His manner, always fascinating and attractive, 
was now more kindly than ever. 

"My friend," he said, "you have often 

3fi 



read to me out of God's book, and I thought 
that I understood the meaning of it, but I 
did not. Now it seems to me that that book 
tells us about two things instead of one thing. 
It tells us how to do, that we may get 
things to eat and drink, so that we may live 
here on the earth that God gave us. That 
refers only to the body. About such things 
as that, if I know a better way I may 
give orders. But there is a something, dif- 
ferent from this. It does not pertain to the 
body — what we shall eat, drink or wear — but 
to the heart and soul. I cannot make a man 
good by issuing an order. I can say to a 
man, ' You build a house and live in it, and 
no longer live in a tent.' He will go and 
do it. But I cannot say to a man, 'Your 
heart is bad, have a good heart hereafter.' 
There is a something over which no man, how- 
ever great his authority — even if it is as great 
as that of the Great Father at Washington — 
can have control. Over that God alone can 
rule." 

The next Sunday, Iron Eye made an ad- 
dress to the Indians. Father Hamilton said, 
that at no Synod or General Assembly did he 
ever here a more profound and philosophical 
discourse on the invisible kingdom of God. 
The order was revoked, and from that time 
on the little Indian church built up its mem- 



bership from those who, of their own free will, 
chose to attend. 

As soon as the Indians obtained titles to 
lands in severalty, Iron Eye selected a loca- 
tion out on the Logan river, near the town 
of Bancroft, Nebraska. He built a good two- 
story house and barn, bought a supply of the 
latest improved farm machinery, and opened 
up a large farm. 

There were many sides to Iron Eye's char- 
acter. He was a great hunter, and, in defense 
of his tribe, he was a fierce warrior. Many a 
Sioux, in the series of battles between them 
and the Omahas, started on his long journey 
to the happy hunting ground through the un- 
erring aim of his bow or rifle. He was a trader, 
and at one time had accumulated a large for- 
tune, several thousand dollars of which he loan- 
ed a white man, who refused to pay, and then 
Iron Eye felt the full force of the old Indian 
system, when he learned that an Indian could 
not sue or be sued in the white man's courts 
of law. So his creditor could not be made to 
pay, and Iron Eye lost all his money. 

Still another side of his character is illus- 
trated by an incident related by his 
daughter, Inshta Theumba. 

"We were out on the buffalo hunt. I was 
a little bit of a thing when it happened, long 
before I could speak English, but the impres- 
sion it made on me seems to grow stronger as 



I grow older. Father could neither read, 
write or speak English; and this little in- 
sight into his character shows plainly that 
moral worth of the very highest can exist, 
aside from all white civilization and education. 

" It was evening; the tents had been pitched 
for the night, the camp-fire had been made, 
and mother and the other women were cook- 
ing supper over it. It was a soft, yellow sun- 
set, with scarcely any wind. I was playing 
near my father, when a little Indian boy, a 
playmate, came up and gave me a little bird 
he had found. I was very much pleased, and 
showed it to father and mother, and tried to 
feed it and make it drink. After I had 
amused myself with it for a time, my father 
said to me, ' My daughter, bring your bird to 
me.' When I took it to him, he held it in 
his hand a moment, smoothed its feathers 
gently, and then said, 'Daughter, I will tell 
you what you might do with it. Take it care- 
fully in your hand, out yonder where there 
are no tents, where the high grass is, put it 
softly down on the ground, and say as you 
put it down: God, I give you back your little 
bird. Have pity on me, as I have pity on vour 
bird.' 

"I said, 'Does it belong to God?' He 
said, 'Yes, and he will be pleased if you do 
not hurt it, but give it back to him to take 
care of.' I was very much impressed, and 

39 



carefully followed out his directions, saying 
over the little prayer he had told me to say. 
Whenever I think of my father in connec- 
tion with this incident, Tennyson's lines come 
into my mind: 

" ' He prayeth best, who loveth best, 
All things both great and small, 
For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all.' " 

After a hard day's labor he took a severe 
cold, and died very suddenly, September 23, 
1888. 

The white people came from miles around 
to attend his funeral. It is said to have been 
the largest funeral procession ever seen in 
that part of the state. He is buried in the 
cemetery just south of Bancroft, where a mod- 
est marble shaft marks the last resting-place 
of this most remarkable man. 





RA-TAH-NAH-JE, OR STANDING 
HAWK. 



Standing Hawk was one of the 
hereditary chiefs of the Omaha tribe. 
He lived for many years after the 
treaty was made, near the Omaha 
Mission, in a two-story frame house, which 
had been built by Iron Eye, in the early 
years of his residence there, and used partly 
for a trading post. Standing Hawk was a 
thorough Indian, and believed in all the 
Indian superstitions, and 
practiced them until the 
day of his death. He 
was a man of good char- 
acter; and farmed so far as 
he was able to do so. But 
to change from the Indian 
mode of living to that of 
civilization came to him too 
late in life. 

He believed in owning 
lands in severalty, and often 
said that while he was too 
old to learn the white peo- 
ple's ways, his children 
should learn them. 




41 




AH-HE-GA-GIN-GAH, OR 
LITTLE CHIEF. 

Little Chief died shortly after the 
treaty was made. He was a man 
highly respected by all who knew 
him. He made one variation from the Indian 
customs. He treated his wife as if she were 
a queen. He never allowed 
her to work more than was 
absolutely necessary. She 
was a woman of the highest 
character. 

This marked difference of 
Little Chief's treatment of 
his wife to that of the other 
Indians is still remembered 
in the tribe. 

His wife is still living, and 
preserves all the dignity of 
her former years. Among the 
Indian customs to which she 
adheres, is the practice of mak- 
ing a formal visit once a year, 
to all the members of the tribe 




42 



who (under the old Indian customs) were of 
equal rank with herself. She is always treated 
with the greatest consideration by all mem- 
bers of the tribe. 

At Little Chief's funeral a large concourse 
of people, including missionaries, agents and 
employes, assembled. The Indian burial 
ceremonies were observed in full, for the last 
time, in the Omaha tribe. His horse, led to 
the grave, covered with blankets and other per- 
sonal belongings of the chief, was strangled; 
also his favorite dog was killed, that they 
might accompany him on his long journey to 
the happy hunting grounds. 





AH-WAH-GAH-HA, OR VILLAGE 
MAKER. 

Village Maker was a very old man 
at the time the treaty was made, and 
died a short time afterwards. 

But few traditions concerning him 
are preserved by the Indians. Among them 
is one which declares that Village Maker 
was a great hunter, always providing plenty 
for his family and the entertainment of visit- 
ing chiefs. It is said that he was a good 
man, and that very early in life he told the 
Indians that the white people would finally fill 
all the land, and that the Indians must turn 
from hunting to farming. His descendants 
are quite numerous in the tribe to-day; and 
the)- always speak with the greatest reverence 
of old Village Maker. 




41 




AH-NO-KE GA, OR NOISE. 

Noise was one of the signers of 
the treaty, but like Village Maker, 
he was an old man at that time, 
and died soon afterwards. But 
little is known about him, as his 
band was not as numerous as some 
others in the tribe. 
He had met but a few 
white people, or "the big — , _ 
knives," as they were called r> .^ 

at that time by the Omahas. 
The first people with whom 
they came in familiar con- 
tact were the French trad- 
ers. The Indians called 
them white natives, in 
contra-distinction from all 
other white foreigners. 

Noise was a thorough 
believer in all the Indian 
customs, and lived in ac- 
cordance with them until 
his death. 





ODA-NAH-ZE, OR YELLOW 
SMOKE. 

Yellow Smoke, the last signer of 
the treaty, lived to a good old age. 
He was one of the first Indians who made 
a profession of the Christian religion, and 
for years was an elder in the Presbyterian 
church, established by Father Hamilton. 

Y'ellow Smoke was what would be called, 
among the white people, "a. pillar of the 
church." He never failed to be present at 
any public service, and every prayer meeting, 
when it was at all possible for him to do so. 

When he was in Washington, some one 
made him a present of a silk hat. 
Y'ellow Smoke preserved this to the 
day of his death, and always, when 
attending church, when the weather 
was fair, would wear that hat. He 
had another silk hat that he wore 
on other occasions, but this one 
he always kept for church. 

To see Y'ellow Smoke walk into 
church with his silk hat and blanket 




46 



on, to one who did not know him, would 
cause a smile, but if one waited until it came 
his turn to speak, he would always hear some- 
thing well worth remembering. 

An educated white man who often attended 
the church, said that he never heard, any- 
where, finer religious addresses than he had 
heard delivered in that church by Yellow 
Smoke. 

Being a thorough Christian, he abandoned 
all the Indian customs, and adopted those, as 
far as he could, of 
the whites. It may be 
said of him that he 
was a conscientious 
believer and follower 
of the Lowly Naz- 
arene. He and Big 
Elk, who is a de- 
scendant of the old 
chief Big Elk, were, 
for years, the leaders 
of the Indian Presby- 
terian church on the 
reservation, and have 
had the confidence 
and respect of all the 
missionaries and min- 
isters who knew them. 





hJr 




O THE DRIVING CLOUD. 

By H. W. Longfellow. 

Gloomy and dark art thou, O chief 

of the mighty Omawhaws; 
Gloomy and dark as the driving 
cloud, whose name thou hast 
taken. 
Wrapt in the scarlet blanket, I see thee stalk 

through the city's 
Narrow and populous streets, as once by the 

margin of rivers, 
Stalked those birds unknown, that have left 

us only their footprints. 
What, in a few short years, will remain of 
thy race but the footprints? 

How canst thou walk in these streets, who 
hast trod the green turf of the prairies? 

How canst thou breathe in this air, who hast 
breathed the sweet air of the mountains? 

Ah! 'Tis vain that with lordly looks of dis- 
dain thou dost challenge 

Looks of dislike in return, and question these 
walls and these pavements, 

Claiming the soil for thy hunting-grounds, 
while down-trodden millions 

Starve in the garrets of Europe, and cry from 
its caverns that they, too, 

Have been created heirs of the earth, and 
claim its division! 

48 



Back, then; back to thy woods in the regions 

west of the Wabash! 
There, as a monarch thou reignest. In 

autumn the leaves of the maple 
Pave the floors of thy palace-halls with gold, 

and in the summer 
Pine trees waft through its chambers the 

odorous breath of their branches. 
There thou art strong and great, a hero, a 

tamer of horses! 
There thou chasest the stately stag on the 

banks of the Elkhorn, 
Or by the roar of the Running Water, or 

where the Omawhaw 
Calls thee, and leaps through the wild ravine 

like a brave of the Blackfeet! 

Lo! the big thunder canoe, that steadily 

breasts the Missouri's 
Merciless current! And yonder, afar on the 

prairies, the camp-fires 
Gleam through the night; and the cloud of 

dust in the gray of the daybreak 
Marks not the buffalo's track, nor the Man- 
dan's dexterous horse race; 
It is a caravan, whitening the desert where 

dwell the Comanches! 
Ha! how the breath of these Saxons and Celts, 

like the blast of the east wind, 
Drifts evermore to the west the scanty 

smokes of the wigwams! 

49 





50 



i 




IG ELK. 

After Black Bird,* who was given 
a national reputation, and very un- 
fairly so, by Washington Irving, the 
next most noted chief in the history 
of the Omahas was Big Elk, of whom 
a great deal has been said in the biography 
of Iron Eye. 

Big Elk, on the other hand, was noted for 
his kindness of heart and general good judg- 
ment, an instance of which may be found in 
another part of this souvenir, in the story of 
the French Captives. 

Some twenty years ago, an old Omaha 
Indian told a white friend that the memory of 
Big Elk in his family would never die. He 
said that all the members of 
his father's family were poor, 
that they had never owned a 
horse, and when they were 
out on long buffalo hunts, they 
had to travel on foot and carry 
their baggage on their backs, 
and when returning, whatever 
robes, furs, or meat they pro- 
cured, had to be carried in 
the same way. 




* The reputation of Black Bird in his tribe was, that he was a 
cruel and very unjust ruler of his people. 



One day his father, almost worn out from 
carrying a heavy pack, sat down by the way 
to rest, when Big Elk came by, and seeing 
the old man was nearly exhausted, he took 
pity on him and gave him his own horse. 
"That," said the old Omaha, "was the only 
horse my father ever owned. And he was no 
relation to Big Elk." 

He succeeded Black Bird as head chief of 
the tribe, but he only lived a little past middle 
age, and died of an epidemic fever, prevalent 
at that time among the Omaha Indians. He 
died near the river, just below the bluff where 
Black Bird was buried. 

He was buried on one of the hills south of 
where the Omaha agency building now stand. 

So universally loved and respected was 
Big Elk by all the members of the Omaha 
tribe, that it is said that no member of that 
tribe has ever been heard to say anything 
other than that Big Elk was a great and good 
chief. 





A-JA-PA'S LETTER. 

"My Friend: As I am thinking 
(jff of you to-day, I send you a letter ot 
a few words. My friend, what I 
speak I hope you understand. The 
one thing that I wrote last winter to tell 
you about, last winter's words continue; but 
I shall tell you again. As to our being in 
this land, God put us here, and so we are 
here. Before the white people came hither, 
we thought it was our land. But when the 
Great Father* said the land was to be sold, 
it was sold, and a very small part remains 
to us of all that used to be ours. And 
now the white people wish to take that 
from us! They wish to send us to a far-off 
land. It is very hard for us. To take our 
land from us is very much like killing us. 

"We wish to live, so I send you this letter. 
We tell you that we think of becoming citi- 
zens, because you ( whites ) have a bad opinion 
of the life and customs of Indians. Most 
truly do we tell you what is said. And when 
we become citizens we wish to keep our own 
land, therefore we wish to become citizens. 
I wish to tell you all this is hard for us. M) t 
friend, white people, Americans, those who 



* The President. Referring to the white people generally, or 
the government. 

53 



have seen the Indians, and know them, when 
they tell you anything, they tell you straight 
truth. But those who have not seen us at 
all, say: 'Indians are bad.' Or when they 
have talked very little with us, they tell how 
very bad the Indians are. 

"And, my friend, we hope that you all will 
open your hearts and think of God, and have 
pity on us Indians. For, by night and by 
day, we are in constant dread of some unseen 
evil. 

" My friend, again another matter, in a very 
few words, I wish to speak about. It has been 
said: 'You are to have white soldiers reside 
among us.' But we know the soldiers, we 
know them, so we fear them. We do not 
want them, and all the Indians do not want 
the soldiers. From the days of the former 
Indians we have had them, so we know them. 
They act as if they were the only human be- 
ings. And whatever Indian woman they wish 
to dishonor, without taking her at all for a 
wife, they dishonor her, and they treat us 
just as if we were hogs and dogs. Therefore, 
we do not want them. The Indians are not 
the first to do what is bad. The soldiers first 
cover up their own bad deeds, and having 
covered up their own, they show to the Great 
Father the bad deeds of an Indian. 

"Although I shall repeat something, still 
I will say it again. The Indians called Sioux 

54 



hate us Indians, who, having sold our lands to 
the Great Father, are now farming. You 
think that all the Indians are alike, but we 
are not alike. Some desire to be on the side 
of the white people, and some, who are called 
Sioux, are not so, and yet you think that we 
are exactly alike, when we are not so. We 
are not like them. We are all of different 
nations; you whites, too, are of different na- 
tions, and so are we. If the Sioux hate us, 
and if you, too, hate us, how can we live? 
We wish to live, we wish to go towards you. 
Even if we should fail, still we wish to get 
something for ourselves — that is, to become 
citizens. For only in that way can it be 
good for us. 

"I have told you enough about that. And 
now I will tell you another thing. As we 
wish to live, we are working for ourselves. 
And we do so because we know very well 
that it will be good for us, and yet we have 
fared very hard this year. The 
heat was so great that our 
wheat was withered, and did 
not bring more than from 
thirty to forty cents a bushel. 
Therefore, we are just as if 
we had not made anything at 
all for ourselves; though we |g|| 
have corn, potatoes, and dif- 
ferent kinds of vegetables. 




55 



" When we see these white-skin people, we 
think they are prospering, so we desire it 
(civilization). We know that all your agri- 
cultural implements, and other machines, are 
useful in getting one's living, and for the last 
three years we have had some tools. 

"We have tried working, and know very 
well that it is good, so we desire it. As we 
write this letter to you, God is sitting with 
us, as it were; therefore, we hope that the 
white people will stop talking about our land 
(or against us). 

"We wish to keep what is ours, so we 
petition you, and your people, too, who are 
helping us, we pray to you, and you who are 
on the other side, we pray to you also: Have 
pity on us Omaha Indians. We do not mean 
all the other tribes — ourselves alone, do we 
mean. 

" Wa-ja-pa." 




56 



V^T 




OriJUk*, dLfc,-(k»<r-L. 



/Q/Q~ / /ClA^l^ - /WA/ X&^-sL^sx*., Art*; - 




iJ&huSKM^ /0uOcuw_s / 4yn^Mei_yv\_y /Q~ - 
fry. Ib^^iJ^tu^^ AJUL, ya^tUJL It ^ IaJIaL 



r~%i 



DREAM WOMAN. 



^■^F^ " It was over sixty years ago, when 

^^ >V I was a little girl, that we camped 

Y>J*7 near the Nishnabotna, at a place the 

\/<jt Indians called Wa-a-hi-da O-thu- 
* cump-pi (Beautiful in the Distance), 
opposite where Bellevue now stands. The 
place was thickly wooded, and in the beauti- 
ful grove the tents were set up. 

"There were the tents of my brothers, 
Long Wing and Walking in the Rain; rny 
uncle, Wi-thu-gun, as well as my father and 
mother, who had a tent of their own. The 
little girls with whom I dearly loved to play 
all day long, were Hin-na-gi (The Chief 
Woman), Gun-tha-i (The Wanted One) and 
Ha-sa-gii. 

' ' One evening I cried for some deer marrow, 
and my uncle said, < Do not cry any more, 
Hin-ua-sun,* tomorrow you shall have what 
you want.' Before the break of day, while 
we were still asleep, my uncle went away to 
look for deer. 

"It was always a treat for us children, 
when the hunter brought home the venison, 
to have our mothers break the leg-bones of 
the deer and give us the marrow. 

"After we had our breakfast, Hin-na-gi, 
Gun-tha-i and Ha-sa-gii came running from 

* Means a Relative. 

58 



the tents, and said: 'Come on, Hin-ua-sun, 
bring your little pail, and we will go and look 
for wild beans, so we can cook them. Be 
sure and bring your knife, too, so we can 
make some dishes.' 

"Holding my little short, red-handled 
knife in one hand, and my little pail in the 
other, I ran on into the woods with my com- 
panions. 

"The great cottonwood trees that lay de- 
caying on the ground were our especial 
delight, for out of their thick bark, which we 
pulled off, we made dishes, pails and tents, 
which we used in our play. 

" We went to the larger logs which lay here 
and there, and putting in our hands we 
scraped out great handfuls of wild beans, 
which the little mice had stored away for 
their winter's living. After we had washed 
the wild beans clean and white, we put them 
in our little pail. Hin-na-gii 
planted a thick, round stick 
in the ground, and taking a 
stick with a notch in it, she 
tied it to the upright one, and 
then put the little pail on the 
notched stick, and our beans 
were ready to be cooked. 

"We'built our fire and then 
sat down to make our bark 
dishes. We hollowed out the 




thick cottonwood bark and trimmed them 
into round shapes, like dishes of wood our 
mothers had. My dish was crooked, and I 
could not get it round like the other girls, 
which made me feel bad. 

" 'The beans are not boiling yet, so let us 
make a tent,' said Hin-na-gii, who was the 
oldest. ' We can go in and lie down while 
we are waiting for them.' 

" We selected the tent-poles we wanted, and 
tying four together at the top, we set them 
on the ground so they would form a pyramid. 
We placed the rest of the poles in place, and 
then took great sheets of the cottonwood bark 
for our tent-cloth, and our bark house was 
ready. 

"I put my little dish at my head, near my 
pillow of bark, and we all laid down. I went 
sound asleep, but the other girls did not go 
to sleep. They ate the beans, when they 
were done, and then, without waking me, 
they went home and left me alone in the tent. 

" If I had dreamed it when I slept, I should 
have said it was a dream; but I awoke very 
suddenly, and looking around found the tent 
empty. Sleeping opposite the tent door, I 
raised my eyes, and there stood a most beau- 
tiful Indian woman, in a magnificent Indian 
dress. Looking at me, she gave me such a 
beautiful smile that I can never forget it. I 
turned around, and taking my little pail in 



one hand, and grasping my shawl in the other, 
I looked again towards the door, but the 
beautiful woman with the lovely smile had 
gone. 

''As I ran home to the tents, I looked 
everywhere, but I saw nothing on the way. 
Raising the door-flap, I knelt down to enter 
the tent, where my uncle, who had the leg- 
bones of the deer ready for me, threw them 
toward me. 

"'Uncle!' I said, and laughed in delight; 
but my uncle said, 'Sister, see; her mouth is 
crooked,' and mother said, 'My poor child.' 

"Then we heard the voice of my brother 
from his tent, as he said, sternly: 

" ''.It must be their work' (meaning ghosts). 
< Treat your niece with the medicines that 
you know how to make, and do your best for 
her.' 

"So my uncle went out, and brought in 
two roots, one of which he used as a wash, 
and the other I had to hold pieces of in my 
mouth all the time. 

"Four is the magic number 
of the Indians, so for four days 
he treated me, and my mouth 
was straight again, although I 
do not remember the exact num- 
ber of days this took. 

"When my uncle went out to 
hunt, he examined the place 




61 



where our bark tent stood, and there he found 
a great many very old graves of Indians, 
that had been buried many, many years before. 

"They all said it was a ghost I saw, but I 
never thought so. My uncle, who was much 
gifted, was an interpreter of dreams, and this 
was the interpretation of my vision: 

" 'That women of all ranks or stations, and 
of all races, would smile on me.' 

"I never used to tell this, because I 
thought it was a vision sent to me, and I was 
gifted to see visions, and so should not tell 
it, for it was the custom of my people, but 
since I have become a believer in the true 
God, and know there is nothing in the world 
beside Him, I have told this to show that I 
have put all such things away as not fitting a 
believer in the true Son of God." 




m 







(&st: •?, /. 



/jjjt 




ouis. 

"My mother must be over seventy 
years of age, as near as we can make 
out, and yet to this day she cannot 
speak of my brother Louis' death 
without her eyes filling with tears. He was 
older than myself, and I am probably the 
only one of her children now living who 
can remember him. As young as I was at 
the time of his death, his individuality 
made such a strong impression on me, that 
I can, even now, at times, hear his merry 
laugh and shout, as he played with the other 
Indian boys at his games, and his sunny face, 
like a gleam of sunshine, flashes before my 
memory. My father had placed him at the 
Omaha Mission School, as he placed all of 
his children, one after the other, as they 
grew old enough to attend. His desire to 
have his children learn to speak English, and 
educate them as the white people were edu- 
cated, was very strong. 

" At the time of Louis' death, he was prob- 
ably nine or ten years old. Father and 
mother had gone on a visit to the Pawnees, 
leaving him at the Mission. . My grandmother 
had been left at home, at the Indian village, 
about three miles from the Mission. In the 



Mission building was a very large room in the 
third story which had been set aside as a 
bed-room for the little Indian boys who at- 
tended the school. One day, Kaghaumba, a 
family friend, went to visit the Mission. He 
heard from the other boys that Louis was 
sick, and going up into the bed-room, found 
little Louis in this great, bare room, without 
any attendance whatever, the teacher prob- 
ably thinking that he was sick with some 
childish ailment. Kaghaumba, who could 
not speak a word of English, was so indig- 
nant that he wrapped the boy up in his blanket 
and carried him home to his grandmother, 
without informing the teacher. In two or 
three days Louis died, and father and mother 
were met by a runner, while still a day's 
journey from home, and told that their beau- 
tiful boy, whom they had left so full of life 
and vitality, was dead. On reaching home, 
mother says that father lay all night with his 
dead boy in his arms; that he was a changed 
man from that time, and never seemed the 
same as he was before. 

"The most vivid impression that 
remains in my memory of that sad 
time is, that during one of the in- 
tervals when there was stillness and 
quiet, because the wailing of the 
Indians had ceased for a time, as I 
looked out on a reach of prairie. 

65 




at about the distance of a mile away, some 
men emerged from the hillsides. They seemed 
to be advancing in a line, and in regular 
order. Then I heard what seemed to be a 
far-off singing. They were singing a dirge. 
The sound came nearer and nearer, and the 
singers showed more and more plainly. There 
was something peculiar about their appear- 
ance. They came half walking, half running, 
up the slope toward our house, singing the 
dirge as they came. Each of them was drag- 
ging an unstripped willow-branch, which 
trailed on the ground. 

"When they came close enough to be 
recognized, I saw the blood 
streaming from the left arm 
of each of them. The broken 
end of the willow-branch was 
thrust through the thick flesh 
of the upper-arm of each one, 
while the tops and the boughs, 
leaves and all, trailed on the 
ground. They ^had walked 
the distance of a mile, singing 
the death-dirge, in honor of 
my dead brother. 

"The impression it made 
on me is almost as vivid to- 
day as it was then — this re- 
membrance of my brother's 
death. I think it will please 




66 



my mother to know that the memory of 
him still lives, and she will like to know 
that the baby's sketch, which accompanies 
this article, has been published. It is a hasty 
sketch, taken of Louis when he was a baby, 
by some wandering artist, at the time of the 
Mormon emigration to Utah. She says she 
was standing, with Louis in her arms, by the 
Missouri river, when the artist got off the 
steamboat, while it was unloading its passen- 
gers, and that he made the sketch, took the 
leaf out of the book, and handed it to her as 
he stood on the gang-plank, while the whistle 
sounded." 





HE CAPTIVE'S SONG. 

Many years ago, before the Omaha 
Indians sold to the government the 
land on which Omaha now stands, I 
heard an Indian captive sing a song which I 
can never forget. 

We were living then at Bellevue, although 
the rest of the Omahas were living in mud 
lodges over seventy-eight miles up the river, 
where Homer now stands, and a few that 
were scattered along the banks of the river 
between Homer and Bellevue. There was 
not even a single house where Omaha now 
stands. 

The Pawnees were on the war-path, and 
knowing the Spaniards had many horses, they 




W 



68 



Lad gone far west and made a raid, bringing 
home many horses and five young Spanish 
boys as captives, whom they had found herd- 
ing horses. 

They brought the captives home without 
any trouble, for the Spaniards did not know 
of their loss for some time, as the herds were 
a long way from their homes, and the herders 
had provisions with them. There were no 
English people here at all then — only French- 
men, mostly traders. Some of them came 
up here from St. Louis, and told our agent 
that the Pawnees had five Spanish captives. 
Our agent went down, and the Pawnees gave 
up the captives to him, and he brought them 
back with him to the Omahas. While wait- 
ing for the Omahas to come down to Bellevue, 
they stayed at our house, and I saw the cap- 
tives. There were two about sixteen or 
eighteen years old, one about ten, and the 
youngest eight years old. The youngest one 
held on to the coat of the agent, for he was 
afraid ol the new Indian tribe. 

Just before the Spanish captives arrived at 
Bellevue, an event occurred among the In- 
dians who were camped along the river. 

An . Indian named Nettle ( Sha-nug-a-hi ) 
had built a straw r hut among the bluffs, close 
to the river, and in this abandoned hut a 
Frenchman, coming from the Sioux country, 
had taken refuge. It seems his feet had been 

69 



frozen, and unable to walk farther, he was 
resting in the hut when found by an Omaha 
Indian, who had been hunting deer. 

Why he committed the crime we do not 
know, but he shot the poor Frenchman. He 
then told every Indian hunter whom he met 
he had killed a white man, because No Heart, 
an Omaha Indian, had been killed by an Iowa 
Indian. Happening to meet his brother, who 
was also out hunting, he took him back to the 
straw hut to see the white man he had killed. 
Wa-o-ga, the brother, seeing the Frenchman 
was still alive, and suffering, although mortally 
wounded, said that out of pity he put an end 
to his sufferings. 

Big Elk was then our head chief. He was 
a very good man, and one of the greatest 
chiefs the Omahas ever had. He was well 
known by the French and Spaniards, and 
respected by both white people and Indians. 

It was before I was married to Iron Eye, 
and he and his father had just returned from 
hunting, near Homer, when the old chief 
came into the tent and whispered a few words 
to your grandfather. Your father knew it 
must be something important that Big Elk 
was telling. So when the old chief had gone, 
he asked him what it was. 

"He has sent the following message to the 
authorities at St. Louis, " your grandfather said, 
"which he wishes me to deliver. Wa-o-ga's 



brother has killed a white man, and he is 
afraid not only that the white men may be- 
come incensed at the tribe, but that the 
Omahas may be tempted to repeat the crime 
some day, and Big Elk wishes the authorities 
to take the crime in hand and punish the 
offender, as an example for the rest." 

As our agent was then at Bellevue, your 
father and grandfather came down to Bellevue, 
on their way to St. Louis, and gave the mes- 
sage sent by the head chief. 

The agent sent Village Maker up after the 
murderer, and he was brought down to Belle- 
vue with Big Elk and Wa-nun-sun-da. 

The captive was guarded, but on the second 
day he made his escape. They followed him 
up to the mud lodge village at Homer, and 
watched for him and searched his tent, but 
they did not find him, and it was only after 
close watching that near midnight they caught 
him as he was stealing into his tent. 

Village Maker and Chief Big Elk again 
brought him down to Bellevue, and he was 
going to be taken down to St. Louis with the 
Spanish captives, who were to be returned to 
their Spanish friends. This time the mur- 
derer's brother, Wa-o-ga, was also to be 
taken down. 

Two boats, hollowed out of great cotton- 
wood logs, were laid along side of each other, 
and fastened together by nailing boards across, 



and thus forming a platform on which the 
passengers were to sit. There were to be 
fourteen passengers, besides bedding and pro- 
visions, for it was a long trip in those days 
from Bellevue to St. Louis. 

It was a beautiful day in early spring that 
the captives were to be taken down, the 
Spaniards to find freedom, the Indians to find 
captivity. 

Our house was two stories high, and had a 
balcony, and I stood looking down at the 
beautiful green yard below, when I saw the 
Indian captive come out of the employes' 
quarters. He was dressed in buckskin 
leggins and buffalo robe, and his long, black 
hair hung down below his shoulders. He 
took his place in the middle of the green yard, 
and cast a long, searching look around, with 
perfect despair on his face. He seemed to 
realize the hopelessness of his captivity. His 
wild, free life was over; what mattered else? 
Then he sang his song: 

Un winwata bltha dan, 
Gunata ha hata dan ? 
Un winwata bltha dan, 
Gunata hata dan? 
Inshaga wanunkcha shanun; 
Winwata bltha dan 
Gunatun hata dan? 
[Where can I go 
That I might live forever? 
Where can I go 
That I might live forevei ? 



The old fathers have gone to the spirii-land, 
Where can I go 
That we might live together?] 

The song thrilled me through and through, 
and I thought, how true it is, for he meant 
that wherever we go, we will always have 
death before us — we cannot avoid it — that no 
matter what he did nor where he went, he 
could not live forever, that all his forefathers 
had gone to the spirit land, and how could he 
expect to escape death. When he finished 
his song he returned to the quarters from 
whence he had come. There was perfect 
silence, and no one spoke; they only felt that 
he had sung the truth. 

They started down the river: Big Elk, the 
agent, your father and your grandfather, the 
two Indian captives, the young Spaniards, 
Village Maker, Wa-nun-sun-da and Joe Rou- 
bridaux, all in the boat I told you about. 
They were only a few days' travel from St. 
Louis, when a storm came up. As long as 
they kept close to the bank they were safe, 
but the agent ordered them to cross the river, 
in hopes of finding a steam-boat landing. 
They could see the big white-capped waves, 
and the water was so much rougher near the 
middle of the river. 

Your father said, "No, the boat will sink 
if we cross; keep where you are." But the 
agent insisting, the rash attempt was made. 



When they were in the middle of the river, 
the boat began to sink, and the agent was 
the first to jump into the water and swim for 
the shore. How he ever had the strength to 
reach it, they did not know, for he had on a 
heavy fur coat and heavy boots. Big Elk, 
Wa-nun-sun-da and Village Maker also struck 
out for the shore, and safely reached it, as 
well as Joe Roubrideaux. 

Your father told the young Spaniards to 
cling to the boat, but the three older ones 
struck out for the shore, and soon sank. The 
two little ones obeyed, and he heard them 
both praying as they clung to the boat. 
Through all their captivity, the little Spaniards 
never forgot to say their prayers, and every 
night knelt down, and now, in time of great 
peril, they turned to God for help, and He 
heard them, for they were both saved, and 
later returned to their Spanish friends. 

Imitating the cry of a bear, the Indian 
captive, when he saw the others jump from 
the boat, made one great effort and broke his 
handcuffs. With his free hands he took the 
heavy log chain that bound his feet together 
and threw it over his shoulder, ready to jump 
into the water. 

"The iron will make you sink," your father 
shouted, but the captive jumped. As he was 
sinking, your father, with one hand, grasped 
him by the hair, and pulled him up onto the 



platform. Perhaps the captive remembered 
his song; anywa)', he made one long jump, 
and sank straight down, never to rise again. 

Wa-o-ga, clinging to the boat, was also 
saved. 

Your father and grandfather stayed in the 
boat, and drifted safely to land with the two 
Spanish boys. The others who had swum 
ashore had run along the bank, keeping the 
boat in sight. 

Just then a steamboat, on its way to the 
Yellowstone, made a timely appearance, for 
the party had lost provisions and bedding, 
and those who had swum ashore were cold. 
The agent told them of their predicament, 
and without stopping, the men on the steam- 
boat threw them a ham, a box of crackers, 
clothing and blankets. They would have had 
a hard time reaching St. Louis otherwise, for 
at that time there were no settlements, and 
not a house between Bellevue and St. Louis, 
except a few log huts where St. Joe now is. 

On reaching St. Louis, Wa-o-ga was put in 
jail for three days. He was put under guard, 
and the Omahas told to furnish him with dry 
bread and water. Your father pitied him, 
and would take a loaf of bread, and hollow- 
ing one end, would put in a piece of meat 
and close it up again. At the end of the 
three days Wa-o-ga was led out to his trial. 

It was long before the day when Judge 



Dandy, of Omaha, rendered his famous de- 
cision that "an Indian is a man," and had 
the same privilege a white man had in a 
court of law. In those days, an Indian could 
be taken up for any crime, but he could not 
have any white man punished in a court of 
law, no matter what crime the white man had 
committed against an Indian. Since Judge 
Dundy's decision, we have found, as one of 
our own race has said, "Law is liberty." 

Wa-o-ga's anxiety was ended, and he was 
a free man, for he told the authorities that 
out of mercy for the poor man's suffering he 
had ended his life, after his brother had mor- 
tally wounded him. 

The party had to walk home from St. Louis, 
but they brought many things home, which 
they had carried all that distance. 




76 



INDIAN PICTURE WRITING. 
£. ^ Buffalo very plenty. 



Buffalo very plenty. 

Many horses die of starvation. 

Great abundance of buffalo meat. 

White soldiers make their first ap- 
pearance in the country. 





ttf A French-Canadian built 



store of dry timber. 
The comet appeared. 

The stars fell. 



a trading 



An eclipse of the sun. 




NDIAN FOLK LORE STORY. 

"There was an old woman who 
lived all alone, the Rabbit was her 
son and the old woman was Mother 
Earth. Rabbit had a magic skin, 
by which he exercised all his powers. 
It was a rabbit skin, the perfect image of 
himself. Rabbit lived with the old woman, 
and brought her game. The old woman was 
the mother of all living creatures, feeding 
them on things which grew up out of her- 
self. Grandmother Mazhun* said to her 
grandson, < All the people are my children, 
all the men are your fathers, all the women 
your mothers, and all the children your uncles 
and aunts.' 

" And God made a man and put him on the 
earth to take care of the people, but the man 
God sent hated the people, and looked on 
them as his property. This man took all the 
buffalo and deer and put them in herds, and 
made the people take care of them, but did 
not allow them to kill any to eat, so the peo- 
ple were nearly starved. 

"Grandmother Mazhun said to Rabbit: 
' I thought I told you to be kind to your 
fathers and mothers.' 



Mazhun— The Earth. 



" That was all she said, and spoke no more. 

" ' I will see about this, said Rabbit.' 

"Then Rabbit went on a journey to see 
this man, and took his magic skin with him. 
He said nothing to Grandmother Mazhun 
about his project. As he was going along, 
he passed a handsome man. 

"'I have been waiting a longtime,' said 
the man. 'You have been slow in coming.' 

"'I hurried,' replied Rabbit, 'but I was 
slow, after all,' and in an instant he was 
transformed into a handsome young man, 
himself. 

"This splendid young brave whom Rabbit 
met was Umba. * They traveled on together, 
and soon overtook another handsome man. 
He had a war club and a tobacco bag. This 
was Ka.f 

"'I have been waiting a long time, ' said 
he, 'and you did not come.' 

"The three walked on together, until they 
came to where the herders were taking care 
of the buffalo and deer. A little fawn had 
been neglected by the herders, or escaped by 
accident, and Rabbit said, ' I will take this 
fawn with me.' 

"The fawn followed, and the four went on 
until they came to the place where the man 
was whom God had placed on the earth to 
take care of the people. 

* Umba— Light of the Sun. 
t Ka— Turtle. 

80 



"'You have come to challenge me, have 
you?' said he to Rabbit. 'What have you 
brought Ka along with you for? He is al- 
ways inventing tricks and devices to deceive. ' 

"'I have come to challenge you,' said 
Rabbit. 'Let us fix upon the wager. What 
will you bet?' 

" 'I will throw all the people over whom 1 1 
rule,' said the man, 'for that seems to be 
what you want. If you win, you shall have 
them.' 

"Then they sat down to gamble with 
reeds.* Rabbit won every time. He won 
the buffalo, and turned them out of the 
herds to roam at will. He won the deer and 
elk, and all the people, and told them to go 
where they pleased. 

"At last the man said, 'Let us try some- 
thing else besides these reeds.' 

" 'What do you want to try now?' asked 
Rabbit. 

" 'W 7 e will wager on walking in the same 
tracks,' said the man. 

" 'All right,' said Rabbit. 

"'What animal will you use?' asked the 
man. 

" ' My little fawn,' said Rabbit. ' And what 
animal will you use?' 

* The game is played by throwing a bundle of reeds, some- 
thing over a foot long, on the ground, and then grasping as many 
as possible in the hands at once. He who grasps an even number 
wins. 

81 



" ' The wild cat,' he replied. 

"There was a clump of wild goosberry 
bushes near by. It was agreed that around 
it the track should be made. Rabbit caused 
a snow to fall, and the trial began. 

"The fawn made his own trail, and the 
wild cat his, and they went around and 
around in their circles for a long time. 

" Ka got out of patience, and whispered to 
Umba, 'That's enough.' 

"'Wah! let us do everything fair,' said 
Umba. 

"Ka wanted to win by a trick, but Umba 
would not listen to him. Finally, after the 
thing had gone on for a long time, each ani- 
mal always stepping exactly in the former 
tracks, Ka lost his patience altogether, and 
said: 

" ' Come, make an end of this.' 

"The man who was sitting near by gave a 
little puff, Ka caught the puff and turned it 
into a great hurricane. The wild cat fell over 
and put his foot out of the track. 

" 'You did that,' said the man to Ka, and 
he struck Ka on the head. The blow mashed 
all the bones, and the brains all ran out. 

"That is the reason the turtle's head is 
full of little bones and no brains. 

"At the conclusion of this game, Rabbit 
turned loose the bears and all the animals 



82 



with fur, and gave the man the name of 
'Cinidawagithe'.* 

" Rabbit thought he would go through the 
country a little and see how the people liked 
all this, so he took up his magic skin, and 
said to Ka, 'You watch Cinidawagithe while 
I am gone.' As Rabbit took up the skin, it 
was so transformed that it looked exactly like 
him, so he put it down and left it there. 

"Rabbit noticed that Cinidawagithe did 
not have his soul with him,f and he said: 'If 
we kill him, his soul will not be dead, but 
will take some other form, and live on.' 

"Rabbit then went to the place where 
Cinidawagithe's wife was, to inquire of her 
where he had hidden his soul. 

" The magic skin was there in the place 
where the contest was made, and Cinidawa- 
githe, not knowing Rabbit was gone, said to 
Ka: 'We will play another game.' 

" ' What? ' asked Ka. 

" 'We will see who can keep his eyes open 
the longest without winking.' 

" 'I will have the eagle play for me,' said 
Cinidawagithe. 

" ' Rabbit will play on our side,' said Ka. 

"Then he put two acorns in the place for 
eyes in the magic skin, and the eagle sat 



* Muskrat. 



r A. belief of universal acceptance among Indians is that it 
possible for the body to live without the soul. 

83 



down by the side of it, with eyes wide open, 
to make the trial, while he and Umba sat 
watching. 

" Meanwhile, Rabbit went to Cinidwagithe's 
wife's tent, having on the way transformed 
himself to look exactly like her husband. 

'''I have come, wife,' he said, 'to rest 
awhile.' 

'"No, no, Rabbit,' she replied, I know 
you.' 

"'I am myself, and I have come to rest; 
give me some dinner.' 

"Finally the woman was persuaded to be- 
lieve Rabbit was her husband, and gave him 
his dinner and supper; but being in such fear 
of her husband, she again insisted in great 
earnestness that he was Rabbit. 

"'Yes, it is I,' said Rabbit. 'Your hus- 
band is very bad; if he knew I staid here, he 
would kill you. If you keep still I will save 
you alive. Now tell me, where did your 
husband hide his soul?' 

" ' There is a very large lake,' said the wo- 
man, ' by it there is a loon, and this loon has 
my husband's soul in charge.' 

" The woman was very much afraid of both 
Cinidawagithe and Rabbit, so she insisted 
that the Rabbit must use all his power and 
exercise all his strategy to kill the loon. 

" 'You can only kill it,' she said, ' by tak- 



84 



ing out its heart. No one has been able to 
get near it.' 

" Rabbit started out to hunt the loon. He 
soon came across an old beaver woman. 

" 'I have been hunting,' he said to her. 

" 'What are you hunting?' she asked. 

"'I want to know of you something.' 

"'What have I got that you want?' she 
asked, somewhat surprised. 

" 'If you will lend me what I want,' Rabbit 
replied, ' I will pay you well.' 

" 'Well, tell me what it is that you want,' 
she said. 

" Rabbit, without further ado, said plainly: 
•' I want your heart, lend it to me. ' 

"The beaver woman took out her heart 
and gave it to Rabbit, and Rabbit said: 

"'To pay you for this I will give you a 
tomahawk to cut down trees with, and the 
work you do with it shall be better than man 
can do.' And he gave her her teeth. 

" This is how beavers get their sharp teeth. 

"All this time Cinidawagithe did not know 
that Rabbit had gone. He thought the magic 
skin was the real Rabbit. 

"After awhile Rabbit came near the lake, 
and called the loon. It answered. 

" 'Rabbit, I know you,' said the loon, and 
then went further away. 

" Rabbit called it again and again, and at 
last said: 

85 



" 'It is I; I have come to see how my soul 
is getting along.' 

"The loon was finally deceived and gave 
Rabbit the soul of Cinidawagithe. He kept 
it, and then gave back to the loon the heart 
the Beaver woman had given him. 

" 'This does not look like the same thing 
I gave you,' said the loon. 

"Rabbit assured the loon that it was, and 
then went straight to Cinidawagithe's wife. 

"'I have accomplished it,' he said. 'It 
was a hard task, but I succeeded.' 

"Then he sat down right in front of her 
and cut the soul into small pieces. 

"'Now,' said he, 'You are safe. If Cin- 
idawagithe tries to kill you, he can't.' 

"Rabbit went back where Umba, Ka and 
Cinidawagithe were making the trial between 
the eagle and the magic skin with acorns for 
eyes, and there the eagle sat, gazing, not 
having winked even once. 

" Ka had gotten entirely out of patience 
again, and as Rabbit came up, said to Umba: 

" 'Let us finish this; I am tired of it.' 

"'Let us wait,' Umba quietly replied. 
'This is the last trial; we have nearly finished 
all we came to do.' 

"But Ka wouldn't wait any longer; his 
patience was all gone, and he replied: 

" 'Let us end it.' 

" 'All right,' said Umba, and blew a breath 



in Ka's mouth, Ka blew it out again, and then 
fell a great rain. The water ran down in the 
eagle's eyes and made him wink. 

"Ka jumped up and shouted: 

" 'We have won! We have won! Wa, we 
have won !' 

"This made Cinidawagithe very angry, and 
he pounded Ka's head until it was flat. 

"That is how the turtles came to have flat 
heads. 

"Then Rabbit spoke in his proper person 
to Cinidawagithe, and said: 

" 'Wakanda* put you here to take care of 
the people, but you had a bad heart, and 
were selfish. I might kill you, but I will 
turn you into a muskrat. You shall have no 
soul, and must always live among the fishes.' " 



* God— Sacred One. 







mmm 



OMAHA IN 1898. 

Omaha city, the metropolis of Nebraska, 
is situated midway between the oceans, and 
is the center of the greatest agricultural 
region on the globe. After the purchase of 
the land from the Indians, Omaha has grad- 
ually grown from the Indian wigwams of 1854 
to the now populous city of 154,000 inhabi- 
tants. Her churches and schools are among 
the finest and best. Her manufacturing and 
jobbing houses, smelting and refining works, 
Jinseed oil mills and white lead works all have 
an extensive trade. 

Omaha is one of the greatest live stock 



markets in the world, and that accounts for 
her immense packing houses. This, and the 
enormous amount of agricultural productions 
in the surrounding fertile country, has made 
for her a great railroad center, her systems of 
transportation reaching far into the British 
territory on the north, to the Gulf of Mexico 
on the south, to the Atlantic Ocean on the 
east, and the Pacific on the west. Only those 
who visit the city can judge correctly con- 
cerning what faithful and energetic citizens 
can accomplish in a few short years. It is 
probably true to say that on no spot on the 
face of the whole earth could such advance- 
ment be shown in the last fifty years. Then 
a wilderness inhabited only by native tribes, 
now a city in the front rank of modern civil- 
ization. 

Not only on its commercial side has Omaha 
prospered. While its citizens have sought 
after wealth with the eagerness that every- 
where characterizes the American citizen, 
they have not forgotten the far more real, 
though immaterial things, which lie at the 
foundation of all human progress and all real 
happiness. Very many persons have risen 
to distinction in literature, whose first at- 
tempts were made in Omaha. The votaries 
of art, for art's sake, can be found all over 
these plains, while in Omaha there is an art 
gallery not equalled in any city of the same 



size in the United States. Several successful 
novels have been written, and the scenes laid 
in this city. Some writers of humor, whose 
reputations are now as wide as the nation, 
and one who gained a world-wide audience, 
first attracted attention through work done 
on Nebraska publications. 





NEBRASKA. 

The citizenship of Nebraska is noted for 
its quick adaptation to the needs of every 
occasion as it arises. Whether it is famine 
or war, drouth or flood, the men of Nebraska 
know what to do, and do it without hesita- 
tion. When the call was made for food for 
the starving women and children of Cuba, a 
Nebraska newspaper collected and forwarded 
a whole train load of supplies within ten days. 
The state was one of the first to furnish its 
full quota of troops, and has ever since been 
begging the government to allow it to send 
more than its quota. A newspaper man, as 
part of his daily work, on the day the call for 
troops was made, wrote and printed the two 
poems reproduced in this booklet, descriptive 
of a Cuban mother and child and the landing 
of our troops on Cuban soil. 



91 



THE CUBAN MOTHER. 



• Mother, why look all day at the sea? 
Come to the hut and sit thou with me. 
Hunger has gone and all of the pain, 
Come, mother, come, you look but in vain " 

•' Not so, my child, not so, 
A faint, dark line I see. 
'Tis dim, and dull and low, 
Far on' upon the sea. 
Oh! God, Oh! can it be 
The ships from northern lands, 
With food for you, for me? 
Gathered with loving hands — 
Oh! can it be, can it be?" 

Mother, why look all day at the sea? 
Come to the hut and sit thou by me, 
No one is here since baby has died. 
Come to the hut and sit by my side." 

" Be brave, my child, be brave. 
The ships I plainly see. 
They come! they come to save! 
With food for you, for me. 
The northern mother told 
Of baby's dying cry. 
I see the flag unfold 
And gleam against the sky." 

Mother, why look all day at the sea? 
Come to the hut and sit thou with me. 
May I not lay my head on your knee? 
Mother, you dream, there's naught on the sea. 

" I dream not. Now I see 
The red, the white, the blue— 
The flag of liberty. 
They come! they come! It's true, 
Be brave, my child, be brave, 
They heard the children's cry, 
They come, they come to save, 
Praise be to God on high." 



92 



While the citizenship of the state is made 
up of various nationalities, including Eng- 
lish, Germans, Swedes, Norwegians, Poles, 
Frenchmen, Russians, Swiss, Austrians, Bo- 
hemians, Cubans, Spaniards, Indians, Armen- 
ians, Greeks and Negroes, we all live in 
peace together, and there are no race prob- 
lems to trouble society. At the same time, 
the United States census shows that Ne- 
braska has less illiteracy than any other 
state in the Union. It has statesmen and 
scientists whose names are household words 
in every civilized land. 

Its great university, located at Lincoln, open 
and free to all, gives a liberal education to 
2,000 students every year. Four tribes of 
Indians are permanently located in the state, 
and all of them are making commendable 
progress in the arts of civilization. Fifty 
years ago Nebraska was a trackless wilder- 
ness. Today it is dotted with cities, grid- 
ironed with railroads, and filled with schools, 
churches and higher institutions of learning. 
Men of every race and of every country have 
found a home here, where we live in peace, 
and if one suffers, it is the concern of all. 



"X^- 



9a 



OUR BOYS IN CUBA. 

Well, Cuban mothers, they have come, | 

That is, what's left of them, 
Through fire and smoke and bursting bomb, 

'Cross fields of blood, by dying men, 
Where bullets rained, and the fierce scream / 

Of shell — a bloody track. 
Now drink, drink from my canteen, 

Eat from my haversack. 

What? Don't hesitate. It's for you. 

(How pale she is and wan, 
And that strange talk to me is new, 

The language of the Don. 
How ill she is, and thin and lean. 

Those eyes! How large and black ) 
Don't weep! Drink from my canteen, 

Eat from my haversack. 

What? (The voice is strange and low, 

A wailing, full of fears, 
But there's one language all men know. 

It speaks through woman's tears.) 
You heard our shou's and saw the gleam 

Of bayonets. The Dons ran back. 
We've come. Drink from my canteen, 

Eat from my haversack. 

"Senor." Oh, don't call me senor, 

I'm but a farmer lad, 
Who left his plow to go to war. 

V\ e just got fighting mad 
'Bout starving women, children's screams 

And Weyler's bloody track. 
So drink, drink from our canteens, 

Eat from the haversack. 

BB 14 8 




■ ' 



JUN 1 1904 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




